On April 17, the internationally acclaimed sculptor Doris Salcedo spoke to a packed audience at Hunter's East Harlem Art Gallery. Salcedo is a Colombian artist known for work that uses often furniture and other household items to speak for the powerless, including the silenced victims of violence and oppression in her own country and the immigrants who flee poverty at home only to face hostility and persecution abroad. Her sculptures and installations have been exhibited at MoMA in New York, the Tate Modern in London, the Istanbul Biennial, and other leading art institutions around the world.

Salcedo's public lecture was part of her spring residency at Hunter as a Zabar Visiting Artist. Zabar Visiting Artists are appointed every semester by a Hunter faculty committee of studio professors and art historians. In master classes and private tutorials, the visiting artists work directly with students earning their MFA degrees. They also work with other students, at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, in Hunter's art and art history programs.

In her talk, Salcedo spoke of her determination to give voice to victims of political violence. Afterward she took questions from the audience, in a dynamic discussion moderated by Paul Ramirez Jonas, associate professor of art at Hunter.

Now in its sixth year, the Zabar Visiting Artist Program is made possible by the generous financial support of Judith and Stanley Zabar. Judith and Stanley Zabar are both talented artists themselves. Judith Zabar is an alumna of Hunter College and Hunter College High School.

Salcedo's lecture was also sponsored by Fundación Cisneros/Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, which provides substantial support for the teaching and exhibition of Latin American art at Hunter.